1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally in the field of electronics. More particularly, the present invention is in the field of electronic device testing.
2. Background
Manufacturers of electronic devices generally rely on high volume testers, e.g. automated test equipment (“ATE”), to quickly and accurately test their electronic devices during production. Accordingly, the testers are configured to drive the electronic devices by generating and inputting various signals, e.g., a reference clock, into the electronic devices to test and evaluate their functionality. As such, it is important for the signals generated by the testers to have similar characteristics as the actual signals generated by the electronic devices during normal operation. For example, it is important for clock signals provided by a tester to have a phase noise as low as clock signals generated with the aid of a “crystal oscillator” employed during normal operation of an electronic device.
In particular, when testing an electronic device, such as a wireless local area network (“WLAN”) transceiver, it is critical for a tester to generate a reference clock having a phase noise that is as low as the phase noise of the clock used by the electronic device during normal operation. Since a conventional testing system typically uses a conventional reference clock generator (e.g. a dedicated reference signal generator or a stand-alone function generator), the reference clock from the conventional testing system typically has a much higher phase noise than the phase noise of the clock generated by the electronic device during normal operation. Consequently, various electronic devices, such as WLAN transceivers, cannot be accurately tested using conventional testing systems.